Leicestershire seek Sarwan talks

Leicestershire have had their plans for the new season shaken up by Ramnaresh Sarwan's recall to the West Indies squad and they will seek to clarify his availability.

Sarwan had seemingly turned his back on West Indies, claiming he had been "mentally and emotionally" hurt by the coaching staff, when he signed a two-year extension to his stay at Grace Road which began last summer. He was then appointed captain of the County Championship side for 2013 in place of Matthew Hoggard.

But he was recalled to the West Indies squad for the one-day series against Australia which begins on February 1, suggesting Sarwan could be part of West Indies' future series against Zimbabwe in March and India and Sri Lanka following the Champions Trophy.

"We will be making contact with Ramnaresh to see where this might lead to," Leicestershire head coach Phil Whitticase said. "At this moment, the question of how it might affect us during the season is a bit unanswerable.

"We are really pleased for him because we know that he has been striving to play for the West Indies again. He still has that passion and drive and we want all our players to play at the highest level. From our point of view, it does leave us a bit vulnerable and looking to come up with a Plan B."

Sarwan had an excellent summer for Leicestershire, helping them avoid consecutive wooden spoons in the Championship with 941 runs at 40.91. He also struck two centuries in the CB40.

But he will now add to his 173 ODIs in which he has scored 5,644 runs at 43.41. Although he has endured a poor run of recent form in the Caribbean T20 with a highest score of 19 in seven matches for Guyana.